Ping Test
Watch your ping and jitter live for 30 seconds (or longer if you pick it), then get a report. Every spike, lost request and disconnect is logged with a time.
Test duration
Short tests are useful for quick checks. Longer tests are better for finding intermittent problems.
A Ping Test runs for the time you pick and ends by itself with a report. To watch for as long as you like, with alerts, use the Monitor Test.
What the Ping Test records
Four samples every second
The test sends four small HTTPS requests per second to a public DNS server (you can switch which while it runs) and times the reply, until the time you picked is up.
A live timeline
Latency is drawn as it happens, with markers for every spike, lost request and disconnect, alongside your average ping, current ping and jitter.
A report at the end
When the time is up, everything it collected becomes a report you can copy or download.
What to keep in mind
- Browsers slow down timers in background tabs and pause them while a device sleeps. Those gaps are shown as suspended time, not counted as outages, so keep the tab visible for the cleanest record.
- These are web requests, not ICMP pings, so latency reads a few milliseconds higher than a command-line ping.
- On a very long run the statistics cover the most recent five hours or so.
- The Ping Test watches your path to a public DNS server. For a problem with one specific service, compare it with that service's own status. For a one-off check, use the timed stability test.
Ping Test questions
- How long does a Ping Test take?
- Thirty seconds unless you pick longer. It ends by itself and opens a report with your average ping, jitter and every spike, lost request and disconnect. To watch for hours and be alerted, use the Monitor.
- Is this the same as running ping in a terminal?
- It answers the same question, but it measures differently. A terminal ping sends ICMP packets; a browser cannot, so the test times small HTTPS requests instead. The numbers are typically a few milliseconds higher, and a browser also includes a little server time. Compare tests with each other rather than with a terminal.
- Which server does it ping?
- A public DNS server (Quad9 unless you pick another). You can switch while the test runs. The others are checked less often as a cross-check.
- Will it use a lot of data?
- No. It sends four small requests per second and downloads nothing else. Only the speed test and the bufferbloat test transfer large amounts of data.